Debutante

A huge number of these Robert Tucker-designed 21ft sloops were built in cold-moulded marine plywood during the 1960s and early 1970s. She’s a bilge-keeler with high topsides, a cambered
flush deck, distinctive reverse sheer and a reverse-sloped transom. Debutantes have been sailed across the Atlantic, hauled across the Andes (read Tristan Jones’s exploits in The Incredible Voyage) and dried out up shallow creeks, but time has not been kind to them. A good survey by a specialist is advised. However, even good ones go for very little money so they can be a good way into cheap family cruising. The cabin offers four-berth accommodation with sitting headroom. She is seaworthy for her length and eminently suitable for coastal cruising on a shoestring. A French variant, called the Muscadet, is still raced and cruised enthusiastically by hundreds of owners.

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